| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw: the chair forward with one swing].
PRAED [who has just unfolded his chair] Oh, now d o let me take
that hard chair. I like hard chairs.
VIVIE. So do I. Sit down, Mr Praed. [This invitation she gives
with a genial peremptoriness, his anxiety to please her clearly
striking her as a sign of weakness of character on his part. But
he does not immediately obey].
PRAED. By the way, though, hadnt we better go to the station to
meet your mother?
VIVIE [coolly] Why? She knows the way.
PRAED [disconcerted] Er--I suppose she does [he sits down].
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Island Nights' Entertainments by Robert Louis Stevenson: kind, and threw her hands out open.
"I 'shamed," she said. "I think you savvy. Ese he tell me you
savvy, he tell me you no mind, tell me you love me too much. Taboo
belong me," she said, touching herself on the bosom, as she had
done upon our wedding-night. "Now I go 'way, taboo he go 'way too.
Then you get too much copra. You like more better, I think. TOFA,
ALII," says she in the native - "Farewell, chief!"
"Hold on!" I cried. "Don't be in such a hurry."
She looked at me sidelong with a smile. "You see, you get copra,"
she said, the same as you might offer candies to a child.
"Uma," said I, "hear reason. I didn't know, and that's a fact; and
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tao Teh King by Lao-tze: hurt, but (find) rest, peace, and the feeling of ease.
2. Music and dainties will make the passing guest stop (for a time).
But though the Tao as it comes from the mouth, seems insipid and has
no flavour, though it seems not worth being looked at or listened to,
the use of it is inexhaustible.
36. 1. When one is about to take an inspiration, he is sure to make a
(previous) expiration; when he is going to weaken another, he will
first strengthen him; when he is going to overthrow another, he will
first have raised him up; when he is going to despoil another, he will
first have made gifts to him:--this is called 'Hiding the light (of
his procedure).'
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: skirts and short white stockings tagging along behind him.
When they come to the five-rail fence where the brook runs out of
the field, the question is, Over or under? The lowlier method
seems safer for the little brother, as well as less conspicuous for
persons who desire to avoid publicity until their enterprise has
achieved success. So they crawl beneath a bend in the lowest
rail,--only tearing one tiny three-cornered hole in a jacket, and
making some juicy green stains on the white stockings,--and emerge
with suppressed excitement in the field of the cloth of buttercups
and daisies.
What an afternoon--how endless and yet how swift! What perilous
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